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On Character Looks

You probably haven’t wondered, since it’s a video game in anime style and this is a hallmark of both, but elven hair color… it’s not natural.

That’s from a box. Her highlights came through nicely, though, right?

What might strike you as more odd is that humans have… normal-colored hair.

Waaaaait a second… that’s brown… like my hair… WHAT’S GOING ON HERE?!

And that’s the trend you’re going to continue to see. (Except the MC’s hair is actually a really dark shade of blue, because that looks better in animation than slate back).

You see, going along with our mythology, humans were carved from the ground and elves produced from plants. So, in that vein, humans have earthy-toned complexions and elves more like plants (though I know… I sold out and didn’t make them green). Humans also tend to be heartier, stockier folks, and elves are taller and more wispy.

You’ll notice, also, that our characters are muscley guys, man. Not bishonen guys who are the same width as their swords (or rapiers as the case may be). They actually look like they could pick up a sword. And be deadly with it. They look like guys you don’t want to mess with, is what I’m saying.

I’m a very deliberate person, even in creative endeavors. I reason through nearly all my decisions – in fact, even names (though less in this game, since they’re all made-up) are usually an object of obsession for me. I mean… I go through name databases for meaning before I ever settle on real-world character names.

What about you? Do you tend to (over-) think these things through, or when creating do you just do what feels right?